88 IQGEANOGRAPHY 



ogi-aphy as a general activity of the Government that it might be 

 helpful in meeting some of these objectives that you have been talking 

 about ? 



Mr. Cloud. No, I do not think so. I think the Interagency Coni- 

 mittee is well constituted to do the job. 



You have heard from a number of witnesses in the last few days 

 that we have the authorization and we have the powers of coordina- 

 tion and we do work well together. 



I think that the main thing that we need is the encouragement that 

 you have given us to come to the Congress and to ask for more funds 

 for basic research. 



I think maybe we have been a little more timid about this than 

 we should have been. 



Mr. Oliver. In other words, the wheel has not been squeaky enough 

 in times gone by and you are getting some encouragement now^ to feel 

 that perhaps there would be a little more sympathetic reception up 

 here ? 



jVIr. Cloud. We have nothing to complain about. 



IMr. Oliver. Thank you. I notice that in your statement on page 4, 

 you refer to the necessai-y stall* increases if you were going into the 

 area of more coring activities. Would this be a desirable thing? 



Mr. Cloud. I think so, yes. 



Mr, Oliver. Did you ask for it ? 



Mr. Cloud. We do not anticipate, we have no reason to believe that 

 coring activities will be abruptly accelerated. I think that your 

 question puts the finger on one of the problems that all of us who 

 work in basic science are a little bit afraid of. That is the problem 

 of the crash program. 



We are a little bit like a small boy who has faithfully eaten all of 

 his spinach and is confronted wdth a large dish of ice cream. He 

 knows if he eats it before it melts he is gomg to get a bellyache. Yet 

 he hates to see it go to waste. 



We are veiy much conceiTied that any funding of basic science 

 activity, mcluding oceanography take place at a pace such that we can 

 keep up with it and assimilate it, get the best people, expand our 

 efforts on a realistic basis, and complete and publish our researches 

 as they are done. 



Mr. Oliver. "\^77iat is your feeling with regard to the Soviet activi- 

 ties in a comparable area to which the Geological Survey is operating ? 



Mr. Cloud. I think that probably in the Soviet they would not 

 permit the amount of overlap that we have here. In other words, 

 it is very unlikely that the Soviet geological survey is doing any 

 oceanographic research. That would be the function of some other 

 bureau, 



Mr. Oli\ter. Do you feel that maybe in general they are operating 

 under a greater, more rapid momentum than we are ? 



Mr. Cloud. They are certainly pouring a tremendous effort into 

 all fields of scientific research. For instance, they have an enormous 

 program of drilling core holes all over the country just to find out 

 what is there. 



Mr, Oliver. Do you feel that our relatively lackadaisical attitude 

 is good for the future of this country in terms of what they are 

 doing? 



